HAPPINESS NOT POSSIBLE IN THE ABSENCE 

                                     OF A STRONG SPIRITUAL FOUNDATION

       Happiness, the goal all, wherever existing in time and place, seek, is unattainable in the absence of a strong spiritual being. 

        Necessary for happiness to thrive a strong and secure spiritual foundation must exist. It is this foundation that is lacking causing us to dwell in a spiritual wasteland giving us a state of unhappiness. 

        But to achieve this foundation, the Four Pillars of Man (the physical, the intellectual, the emotional and the spiritual) must be acknowledged and achieved. 

Material well-being, the Physical Pillar, is necessary for healthy physical and mental well-being, healthy families, and living with a sense of purpose. 

           It is difficult to be intellectually, emotionally and spiritually strong with a weak physical pillar.

          And it is difficult to be spiritually strong when confronted with a religion not relevant to each day of your life.

          A recent survey conducted by AARP found 40% of US adults 45 and older report feeling lonely highlighting a growing concern about social isolation in middle-aged and older adults. These feelings of loneliness are not limited to this age group. 

          This concern is pulling people apart because the one thing that truly unites is missing. That is happiness necessitating attention to the Four Pillars of Man to provide the foundation for a strong spiritual being, happiness not possible without a strong spiritual being.

          It is not a coincidence that in Genesis of the Old Testament we are presented with the symbol of the Garden of Eden. A symbol of a life in freedom from the struggles of life freeing us from death and suffering, freeing us from pain of the body and confusion in the mind, providing happiness.

          John Lennon wrote, “When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy.’ They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”

          The first step to happiness or a strong spiritual being begins with the acknowledgment happiness is the goal of life followed by the second step of defining the means to happiness.

         Happiness does not happen by itself. It is a goal demanding a sincere effort using the right means to this end. The means used throughout the world are all over the place, but the goal remains the same. Themeans to happiness is personal, but the goal of happiness is not. But again, man being a spiritual being, fails to achieve happiness in the absence of a strong spiritual being.

          This ‘means’ to happiness, to be effective, must be easily understood, pragmatic and connected to everyday living. Then it becomes a “Way of Life” making happiness a way of life.

          We begin with the Four Pillars of Man, focusing in the next chapter on the Physical Pillar in constructing the foundation necessary for the attainment of a strong spiritual being giving us happiness.

                                                                         Chapter Two

           It has been written, “Material Well-Being is like the soil for human flourishing. It’s the ground from which other forms of well-being, like emotional or social health, can sprout and grow”.

           A roof providing shelter, food chasing hunger away, these are needed to achieve a good life, a happy life. The Physical Pillar, a pillar necessary for survival and human endeavor, must be met to move onto higher pursuits. This pillar sets the groundwork from which one can reach and connect with that larger than oneself, the way through life. 

           The prime needs of life are water, bread, clothing, and a house providing shelter and decent privacy. A life, absent these items, is painful and miserable going from day to day in search of these prime needs.

          Of the Four Pillars of Man (Physical, Intellectual, Emotional and Spiritual), the Physical Pillar is discussed here acknowledging the failure of this pillar makes the other three pillars difficult to achieve and it is my belief the achievement of these Four Pillars leads to happiness. 

          These four pillars are designed to be worked on simultaneously. With the failure of one, man’s life is unstable.

          Necessary to the achievement of the Physical Pillar is possession of an adequate and meaningful job. How and where Americans work and live address the issues of housing, physical and mental health, and sense of community. 

          Difficult, it is, to be materially secure when always fighting to make financial ends, when endlessly facing rising prices of food, housing, utilities, and medical care

          Difficult, it is, to be healthy when health care is elusive due to high cost and insurance issues.

         Difficult, it is, to be happy, emotionally and spiritually strong when materially insecure.

         When you purchase your hamburger at McDonalds realize the person selling you that hamburger is rapidly representing the American worker. 

          Cashiers, food preparation workers in that kitchen of McDonalds, laborers, janitors, construction workers are the backbone of employment in the United States. It is difficult to see meaning in such a world.

         The people before you come from households where the average monthly housing expenses totaling $6,080.00 are to be paid from an average monthly income before taxes of $5,250.00. 

         Credit card usage has become a standard part of financial management. Workers use credit cards to pay day-to-day expenses, for unexpected expenses and everything in between. For millions the only way to pay for the car repair, medical expenses, home repairs, to cover basic needs is the credit card. Only 12% of American workers have enough savings for two months expenses.

           Out of necessity workers seek a second job to make ends meet pushing retirement back, creating a retirement crisis.

           Chapter Three coming in April describes the quality of living caused by living this way. 

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                         NEEDED - SPIRITUAL BELIEFS MAKING SENSE

                                                  FIRST STEP TO HAPPINESS

            A recent survey conducted by AARP found 40% of US adults 45 and older report feeling lonely highlighting a growing concern about social isolation in middle-aged and older adults. 

            This common concern unites people while pulling people apart because the one thing that does unite is missing. That is happiness. No happiness gives us loneliness.

           This struggle with loneliness is not new.

           Happiness, though, remains the goal all seek commencing in infancy. It is a happiness found in freedom from the struggles of life, as symbolized in the Garden of Eden of the Old Testament, a place where death and suffering are not experienced.

             John Lennon wrote, “When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy.’ They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”

             Happiness is a goal, not a temporary state of pleasure. Abraham Lincoln wrote, “Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.”

          That Garden referred to symbolizes the happiness all seek, a life without death and suffering, a goal common to all, a life of happiness grounded in freedom of the body from pain and the mind from confusion. 

            The failure to achieve this Garden brings us back to the question why do 40% of adults report being lonely. Why is this Garden elusive.

            Happiness does not happen by itself. It is a goal demanding an effort at using the right means to this end. 

            Each of us has different ideas what this means should look like from Thomas Jefferson saying without virtue, happiness cannot be, to the person saying if I am rich, I will be happy. 

           The means is all over the place, but the goal remains the same. The means to happiness is personal, not the goal of happiness.

          The real question to be answered is what means are to be pursued to bring happiness to these 40% of adults reporting loneliness. 

          Tolstoy argued true happiness could only be achieved through serving others and working towards the greater good. Socrates argued to turn attention away from the body and towards the soul.

           Regardless of how the means to happiness is defined, it must be practical, pragmatic, and easily understood. The means need to connect directly to individual life. Practical utility is to be emphasized. 

           Once this is achieved the means become a “Way of Life”. Happiness ensues with loneliness fleeing.                                                                             

                                                                             My Prayer            

           I exist but my existence is not of my doing, making me contingent on an agent, external to me, and indefinable. This agent either made me, set me aside, and moved on leaving me alone or made me with the agent living within me, staying with me, providing company.

            The former I call creation. The latter I call emanation.

             I believe I am an emanation (an extension) from an indefinable original property (the agent spoke of) presented to the world as if a creation. Being an emanation, this original property, no matter how indefinable, lives on within me making the road I travel a road of the sovereign.

              This road, a single road, comes to a split, becoming two roads, one smooth and level - the road of Good, the other rough and rocky - the road of evil. Each road leads to multiple roads with the road of Good leading to more roads of the Good and the road of Evil leading to more roads of the evil.

              The decision which road to take is determined by which Will of Man prevails. That is either the Will of Good or the Will of Evil. 

              The man who sees the Secrets beyond the illusions of life sees the Good, catching glimpses of God. The man who sees only the illusions of the Secrets sees evil. The type of will is determined by what man sees.

               A laborious effort free of bias, tradition, dogma and conventionality, necessary to see beyond the illusions of life to the Secrets, requires a genuine and sincere effort. It is an effort not making sense without the expectation of life after death with the current life being the life by which we learn, and the next life lived by what we have learned.  

              The purpose of the political order, more importantly the foundation of the political order, that is the economic order, is to free man not only from the chains of poverty and oppression setting him free to achieve his human potential but to provide the way to unity with God, the undefined original property, realizing God is not external but internal telling us who and what is God.

              As such man has one duty. To care for his neighbor knowing the workings of inequities create poverty, oppresses the working man, steals from him to give to the few, robs him of his artistic talent and his rightful place in eternity.

              The customs and comforts of this world are to be seen for what they are. Here today. Gone tomorrow. Of the impermanent they are, leaving me, and you, out on a high cliff with no choice but to search for the foundation, the permanent, upon which all rest.

            Any other way is meaningless. Otherwise, my love for mother, for father, for brother, for sisters, for daughter, for sons, means nothing without this foundation. 

                                                                          IT IS SEEDTIME

        Seedtime, a time when in your life, the place where you work is a burden upon your life, your family, your dreams; when the politician comes to you for your vote without talking to you; when the politician knows little about how you live; when the politician does not talk about your problems because he is clueless as to how you live, how you think.       

            Worse is the politician does not care about you. To him you lack value. You do not matter. You are in his eye no more than a commodity.

        Then there is the preacher spewing words of little help or consolation. 

         When the sun rises, when the sun sets, your struggles, your questions, are your struggles, your questions, and no one cares but you. You are alone.

         But why should the politician care when he is there as an agent of a man, a woman, not known to you, who controls the money, with one interest, to seek riches. 

         And the preacher, he pretends to be what he is not when he stands with the man, the woman, with the money, robbing you of what you created. 

        He speaks of the Gospel telling you what it says, telling you what to believe, what to think, in total disregard to what makes you and me unique; that is the ability to think.

          People want security, the means to be independent in a secure way. They want a life where the mental, physical and spiritual struggles are met. I say,

          Give rise to a way of thinking, an old way, a conservative way, demanding the politician be your agent with a preacher who speaks of your inherent ability to think for yourself.         

          We live in a world where never have so many suffered for the few to live so well. This is wrong.

          This suffering involves challenges to livable housing, good health, mentally and physically, self-esteem and a hope dying at the door of religion.  

        The resulting feeling of being left out, left behind, losing interest in community, and country, leads to alcohol, drug addiction and worse.

         The political order controlled by the few perpetuates this failing economic order with its social order, while controlling the many, you and me, through control of the educational process and news media. But, 

        When one is left alone, faced with extinction, the instinct to survive takes over, looking for a way of living searching for answers not found in the economic, political order and certainly not found in religion with its agents of hypocrisy failing to address this search. 

         The way forward is to develop the idea, an old idea, a conservative idea, each matter, each possesses value, and these values are enhanced when this idea is the foundation of an economy breeding by necessity a political order caring for community and country.

         You and I possess no economic independence, no economic energy. So how can we have a say in our lives, in the government directing our future, directing where our blood will be spent, when we lack the power to direct our lives?

       What we are told to believe, the ethics we are told to endorse, simply do not fit the world in which we live. Rather our ethics are dominated by the ethics of the few, men and women of greed, who own the politician, owning you, owning the preacher. This ethics fits the world of the few.

         Those who are purportedly our leaders do not deserve imitation.           

Therefore, I say this.

         Want to predict the future, then create the future as President Lincoln said. Or as Jesus said, exert your will. See that,

         The liberal is no more honest than the conservative for each wants the same, power, power for themselves, for the men and women who put them where they are. 

        But they cannot have this power if you have this power. So, take it away. You can do it. We can it.

        The politician robs you of your power. Your boss robs you of your money. The preacher robs you of your mind. Dignity is lost and once dignity is gone it is not possible to take it back.

        There is a dream called America. A good dream this is. A universal dream it is. Own your land, own your country. Direct your life by the vote with the right to revolt when all fails to honor your dignity. 

         Our instinct for meaning, for spiritual fulfillment, for happiness, appears no longer met but the dream, the American dream, remains as always throughout time and space. 

         You are the soil. You are the water from the heavens. You are the Sun. You are the wind. It only takes that which is reserved to man. Free will. Demand your Will be respected and honored. 

          It is seedtime.